


Home Port

by Mice



Series: Sea Change [3]
Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: M/M, spoilers for Shadows Rising, two idiots in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:35:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25808968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mice/pseuds/Mice
Summary: A conversation the morning after the Gilded Rose
Relationships: Flynn Fairwind/Mathias Shaw
Series: Sea Change [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1875685
Comments: 32
Kudos: 111





	Home Port

Morning came gently, for a change. Mathias woke to find himself wrapped in a large, snoring Kul Tiran blanket, Flynn's body pressed against his back, one arm tucked close around him. No more unyielding golden slab, no queasily swaying hammock belowdecks, but his own comfortable bed, made warmer and considerably more appealing by the addition of one former pirate.

He yawned and stretched, wiggling his toes in content, but Flynn didn't even stir. Mathias rolled over beneath his arm and rested his head on his hand, just looking his fill. Flynn's face was more drawn than the last time he'd seen him up close, on the _Bold Arva_. There were dark shadows beneath his eyes, and his long, auburn hair was loose about his face and shoulders. Mathias slowly brushed the tangled locks that had fallen over his face back with his fingers, letting them rest behind Flynn's ear. There was, again, no response.

Jaina had told him yesterday how badly Flynn had taken his capture, how he'd been mooning about Stormwind distraught and inconsolable. Renzik had told him to 'just screw the guy and put us all out of our misery' before he'd made his way to the Gilded Rose last night. Mathias closed his eyes with a sigh, remembering Flynn's look of fury and utter despair as he stood on the _Arva_ 's deck, six-pounders run out, rifles at the ready, willing to take on Talanji's elite forces for him, no matter the cost. 

How he'd looked gutted at Mathias's order to run, and turned to bring the _Arva_ about under a hail of arrows.

He opened his eyes and let his fingertips trace Flynn's cheek, then pressed a kiss to his forehead. Mathias wanted to stay abed and hold the man until he woke, but nobody had yet found a cure for a healthy man's full bladder that didn't involve getting up and emptying it yourself. He wriggled out from under Flynn's arm and did just that, washing up a little to clean off the mess that remained of last night's pleasure before putting some trousers on and starting a pot of coffee on the hearth.

It was the scent of the coffee that finally roused Flynn, bringing him to lean, naked, against the frame of the bedroom door, arms crossed over his broad chest. Flynn's sleepy grin would have melted a heart of stone, and Mathias wasn't inclined to resist it being aimed at him.

"Look at you, all domestic."

Mathias smiled back at him and poured coffee for them both. "There's sugar if you want."

Flynn chuckled. "A sailor's coffee should be like his soul, black and bitter."

Mathias tilted his head at the man, holding a mug in his direction. "Liar." 

Flynn shrugged and took up the proffered mug, dumping several spoons of sugar into it and stirring. "You have to admit, it sounds good, though."

Mathias huffed a soft laugh in response and shook his head. "You're ridiculous."

"It's part of my charm."

It was. Mathias nodded. "Yeah."

Flynn came to sit with him at the small table in the main room, more than a little distracting dressed in nothing but his own skin. "You had a story you were going to tell me."

Mathias blew on his coffee to cool it a bit and took a sip, thinking. His honesty was usually reserved for his intelligence reports. It rarely led to anything good in his personal life, but he was already in over his head and he had little to lose at this point. Flynn was obviously a willing co-conspirator. "All the time I spent in that Zandalari prison," he said, staring resolutely into his mug, "there was nothing to do but think. It took less than an hour to determine there wasn't a way to escape, but I hoped I might at least be able to talk my way into some information, or at least some sympathy from the guards. They were young. Green."

Flynn listened in a focused and unusual silence, just watching him as he sipped at his coffee, both elbows on the table as he leaned forward. His hair was still a mess, and Mathias had a terrible urge to comb it for him and tie it back properly. Or to run his fingers through it and pull as he kissed him.

"I told one of them about a cabin I used to have in the highlands. Peaceful. Isolated. What I'd do there, and how… how I was good at being alone." Mathias took a breath and continued, quiet. "And I realized that I was sick of that. Tired of being alone, and the only thing I could think of was being out there, in that cabin, with you. How free you are. How we'd sit in the field, in the tall grass, and talk and watch the sunset."

"You thought of me," Flynn said, mug suspended halfway between the table and his lips.

Mathias nodded. "The next day, the kid brought me that perfect blade of grass, and I knew that if I ever made it back…" Flynn reached out to him and Mathias took his hand. They held on tight, fingers twined. "I had to say something. I know you'll flirt with anything on legs, but I didn't want to miss my chance."

Flynn smiled. "I was accidentally enamored of a Siren once, so it can't be said that legs actually come into it. I was really rather annoyed with the Champion who rescued me before I came to my senses. The hangover I had afterwards was massive."

Mathias laughed and shook his head. "Of course."

Flynn's smile faded. "I'd never told anyone about my mother before. I don't know why I told you." He looked into Mathias's eyes. "I didn't know what you'd say, but I trusted you anyway."

"It was a terrible thing." Mathias couldn't help thinking about his own childhood.

"And then you said your grandmother had been a thief as well, and suddenly we were in the middle of… everything. And then I lost you." 

"Her name was Pathonia."

Flynn looked baffled. "Ouch." He realized what he'd said and muttered, "Sorry, no insult intended," with a blush.

Mathias shook his head. "None taken. She raised me. My mother was an assassin. She died on a failed mission when I was four years old."

"I'm sorry," Flynn murmured, sorrow in his blue-grey eyes. 

"To me it's just my life. Pathonia never lied to me about it. She began training me at--" Mathias indicated his entire life with one vague gesture of his mug, "-- this from before I can even remember. My first assignment as an assassin was to eliminate the target my mother failed to kill. I was ten." He still, after all these years, wasn't sure how he felt about it.

"Tidemother, you were just a kid." Flynn whispered, closing his eyes for a moment. He tilted his head and looked at Mathias. "Have you ever done anything for yourself? In your life? Ever?"

Mathias shook his head and squeezed Flynn's hand. "This. Just this." The only thing he could hope for now was that Flynn understood.

Flynn rose, still naked as the day he was born, and stepped around the table to Mathias, hugging him tight. Mathias leaned into it, his bare chest against Flynn's. "I realize I'm tall, handsome, and charming--"

"Not to mention modest," Mathias mumbled into his shoulder.

"Yes, can't forget modest. I am the modestest." His arms tightened around Mathias and Flynn dug his fingers into Mathias's short hair, tucking his head under Flynn's chin. "But I can't help thinking that you deserve a better class of scoundrel."

Mathias raised his face. "Shut up," he snapped, and tugged Flynn down by his long auburn hair to kiss him, fierce and determined.

When the kiss broke, Flynn leaned back, gasping. "Or... maybe not."

"We're more alike than either of us want to admit," Mathias said. "You think I can't decide for myself what I want? _Who_ I want?"

Flynn shook his head, a quick, jerky motion. "Wouldn't dream of suggesting it."

"You make me want to be _free_ , at least for a little while. To let go of the weight of the entire Alliance now and then, and have something for myself." He choked the words out, barely able to admit it even to himself, much less say it aloud. "To have some _one_ for myself," he whispered, his eyes locked with Flynn's.

Flynn's eyes softened. He cupped Mathias's cheek in one palm and gave him a soft, gentle kiss. "Last night, when you were asleep," he murmured, "all I could think about was you. How much I'd missed you. What a wreck I was when I had to leave you behind. About how alone I've been. Captain Fairwind's got a smile that can get me laid in pretty much any port in the world, but Flynn…" He paused and rested his forehead against Mathias's. "I want someone to be my home port, to meet me on the dock when my ship makes landfall. Be that for me, and I'll be yours. If you want freedom, I'll be your sails, Mathias. I'll be the fair wind that carries you and makes sure you get there safe."

Mathias's heart clenched at the words, at the knowledge that they really did want the same thing. That they wanted each other. He nodded, not sure what to say.

"Come back to bed, Mathias." Flynn's voice was urgent, earnest. The look on his face was open and raw and Mathias's heart pounded so loud he wondered if Flynn could hear it.

"Yes." He gave Flynn a searing kiss. "Yes."

There would be time for everything else later.


End file.
